San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-09-02

| eaCn one TURN Coullhetell OVER anu YET ihilu
squarely upon tho one beneath it. Suspect
him IL he can divide stack and run Il to-
gether again with one hand. Such familiar
| ity with the disks betokens long experience,
and II he Is not a professional he Is at least a
man who has spent years In acquiring this
proficiency at the green covered tables. Few
amateurs have these tricks, and, while pro-
fessionals who have learned them may try
hard to avoid practicing them, they will do
It inadvertently Ina moments OF abstraction,
and you can generally make up your mind
that il Is Improbable TO sit long IN their com
pany."
The speaker was dealer in sporting arti-
Giles, and while talking he illustrated his re-
marks by deity mingling red, white and blue
poker chips with one hand. these are the
composition chips he said. "Even in poker
chips there has been a great Improvement in
the last decade. In old times we used moth
Ing but ivory, and they cost from $50 to s75
hundred, according to the amount Of artistic
handiwork displayed upon them. Then the
chips were like coins and stack was worth
is weight in silver, but ivory chips were not
Is good as these we now sell for from sl0 TO
t25 thousand. Ivory chips were always
source Of trouble to their owners. They were
seriously affected by changes Of temperature
and by moisture and were constantly crack
Ing or warping out Of shape.
THE BEST CHECK.
THE best checks are those which are Der.
fectly fiat. of even thickness and equal dia-
meter. They must stack I'D evenly, for the
adept poker PLAYER never wants the trouble
of counting his checks He can pick up Ave.
Law them against the side of an odd stack and
suit of Ave more Putting the two fiyes to-
Rether he has the gage of half stack, and
with them cuts out ten more checks from the
pile to make an even stack. He will keep
that stack whole as long as he can, to measure
up against. Now you can easily see that
checks must be all Of the one thickness and
perfectly fat, or the measurement NAV DO
faulty. All the checks in use now are made
of composition pressed into dies. Rubber and
oelluloid checks are sold in considerable guam
titles but neither OF these materials are con-
sidered as good as certain secret compositions
made by five or six firms i'm this country with
shellac as basis.
"Here Is a check made In Newark The ma
terial seems as hard as stone and believe
that there is considerable stone In the COM
position The manufacturer has made at least
Is 600, 600 checks In the last five years They
are made twenty five at a time in steam heat
ed presses and these lines and figures which
look like engraving are produced by raised
figures In the molds Before he produced
these checks they were all engraved by hand
at considerable cost, and the only low priced
poker chips in market were plain or ringed.
This Is the favorite size Of checks-just the
diameter and thickness of silver dollar The
maker employs 100 hands, who can turn out
about IS 900 checks every day, but the bust
ness IL not confined to poker chips alone
They make fancy buttons, checkers, and mar
tingale rings of the same composition.
Here is a white check with an owl outlined
In blue, and here are blue and red checks,
with b ,rse shoes, crowns, elephants and an
chors outlined in white. He has fifteen de-
signs, six Of which are special patterns made
only for their originators. A year or two ago
one of the big tobacco manufacturers order
ed 900 900 checks of this size with the ad-
yertisement of a brand of chewing tobacco
upon them They were given away to GUS
toners, and the biggest part of them went
west and south.
AS A HOME AMUSEMENT.
@Did the gift of this quantity of checks
make any difference in sales with you"
"No; the business Is steadily increasing all
the time, and the increase Is largely due to
the fashionable popularity of draw poker as
home amusement. Poker parties seem to
be increasing everywhere. Five or six young
men make up club to play at one another's
houses, and each one has to have full outfit
of cards and checks. II they met in a club
room one set Of checks would answer for all.
Thew nav 81 or So a hundred for the checks
and like to have different designs for each
house thew play at Dealers have their
favorite designs, and because they talk them